Monday, July 01, 2013

On Ed Snowden's "Oppressive Regime Tour"

For those who argue--ridiculously--that Edward Snowden should have "faced the music" and stayed in the US rather than "tour the oppressive, anti-human-rights regimes of the world", a little reminder: Neither Russia, nor Ecuador, nor Venezuela, nor Cuba executed anyone in 2011 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).

The United States? We put 43 human beings to death in 2011 alone.

That puts us behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, but ahead of every other nation in the world in terms of the state killing of citizens.

Torture?

Does it count when the US "renditions"--aka, has other cruel regimes do it for us, like Syria, Egypt, or Jordan? Because even if it doesn't, we're right up there at the top among the world's torturers.

Good grief, people. Take off the prima-donna sleep mask, open your eyes, and wake the hell up.

P.S. As for rendition, the U.S. is still at it, too--the only difference between then (under Bush) and now is that our government currently claims it is overseeing things so that when we do apprehend someone suspected of wrongdoing, throw a hood over his head, and haul him off to another country to be "interrogated", the questioning will not be accompanied by torture--at least, not as far as we know (because it is, after all, taking place in another country, and we can't completely control what goes on behind closed doors). Don't you feel better?

Absolutely. We also condone--by turning a blind eye--widespread torture right here in the States, in the form of prison rape. Whatever one feels about a convicted criminal, being sentenced to spend time behind bars is one thing; no judge says "and I further sentence you to be sodomized every day until you are paroled."

Yet that is effectively what happens.

And efforts to reform prison law so as to offer even minimal protection from rape to inmates is somehow seen as "being soft on crime". So instead, we okay cruel and unusual punishment. We are okaying torture.

About the author

Born in England and educated there, as well as in Barbados, Honduras, and the United States. Received a Bachelor's from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications in 1981. Co-author, with Linda Lindroth, of the book Virtual Vintage: The Insider's Guide to Buying and Selling Fashion Online, Random House, 2002. Created the blog litbrit in 2006. Lives with her husband, three sons, and several large and loyal attack dogs and trained-assassin felines, in sunny Florida, USA.